New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT Strarion. 439 
INTRODUCTION. 
There has long been a controversy as to whether the apple 
_ thrives better under tillage or in sod. In an attempt to answer 
this question the New York Agricultural Experiment Station — 
is conducting two experiments. This bulletin is a preliminary 
report on one of these investigations, the other not having 
been carried far enough to warrant a report. The first task 
at hand is to define terms, show the need of the investigation, 
and set the limits of the experiment. 
TERMS DEFINED. 
To till is to plow, harrow, cultivate or hoe; to turn, stir or 
loosen the soil about plants. The definition is clear and it is 
not necessary that it be amplified. Neither is it necessary to 
describe the operations, which singly or taken together, consti- 
tute tillage. They are known of all men, for they have been 
practiced since the beginning of agriculture and are now the 
chief tasks of all civilized peoples. 
Fruit growers have found the cover crop so valuable an 
adjunct to tillage that it is now recognized as an indispensable 
part of the tillage method of managing an orchard. When ftil- 
lage is spoken of in connection with orchard management it 
is understood that a cover crop or green manuring crop is 
used with it. 
Sod is surface soil held together by the matted roots of 
living grass. Since any of the several grasses which grow in 
New York hold soil together, sod is variable in its constituency. 
Sods formed by single grasses are rare; they are usually com- 
posed of orchard or blue grass with greater or less quan- 
tities of ox-eye daisy, mullein, fleabane, the plantains, sorrels, 
docks, wild carrot or other weeds. Sods vary more or less in 
the amount of their vegetation. In some orchards they pro- 
duce a very good hay crop and in others the turf-making 
